Turtle Beach’s Elite 800 headset put Astro on notice – Hands-on video

By Caleb Denison Published December 29, 2014

Turtle Beach calls its Elite 800 the ultimate gaming headset, and based on what we’ve seen so far, we’re inclined to agree. It’s pretty clear Turtle Beach is taking on Astro here, turning out a gaming headset with all the bells and whistles you’d find on competing headsets, with a few more sprinkled in just to out-do the other guy.

Active noise cancelling, DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround sound, customizable EQ presets, hidden microphones, a magnetic charging station and 10-hour rechargeable battery life are just the start of what these PS4/PS3 compatible headphones are capable of. You can even take them on the road as your music headset or kick your PS Vita gaming up a notch, thanks to Bluetooth capability.

Recommended Videos

Check out our video for even more details on what this headset looks and feels like. We think you’ll agree: Turtle Beach may be asking a lot by pricing the Elite 800 at $300, but its delivering a huge return on that investment.

Caleb Denison

Former Editor at Large

Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched expertise in AV and…

Topics

Audio / Video

Stop joining group projects with a blurry laptop webcam and buy one of these instead

Your laptop webcam is sabotaging your first impression. These five can fix it

I'm holding my Logitech C920 1080p webcam in my hands.

The webcam built into your laptop might be good enough for a quick call with friends and family. But its shortcomings become much harder to ignore when you are presenting a semester project, interviewing for an internship, or maybe if you're planning to stream for fun.

Laptop cameras also tend to sit far too low, especially when the computer is placed directly on a desk. Meanwhile, a dedicated webcam lets you position the camera closer to eye level. This improves the framing and brings larger sensors, better microphones, and more effective low-light processing.

Audio / Video

I desperately want a new classic Walkman, but Sony probably can’t give me one

Tech minimalism is begging for a new Walkman. Though rebuilding it may be close to impossible

Every few months, another piece of tech that seems obsolete crawls out of a drawer and becomes cool again. The age of minimalism has revived the popularity of iPods among younger buyers. Dumbphones have become an escape hatch from endless notifications. Similarly, digital cameras are dangling from bags again. Physical media keeps attracting people who want something they can actually hold instead of another frustrating subscription.

All of this makes it the perfect time for Sony to bring back the classic Walkman, which was a phenomenon during the 80s and 90s. I would love one. Give me a compact cassette player, physical buttons, and wired headphones. Keep the apps, notifications, and algorithms that shape your taste of music. No more AI assistants or personalzied feeds, just you and your Walkman. There is only one problem though. Recreating the Walkman that people love and remember, would be far harder than putting an old design back into production.

Audio / Video

Proton reveals how smart TVs track you and the escape situation is pretty grim

Modern smart TVs fingerprint your screen content at the chipset level.

Google TV applications on the Sony A95K TV.

Your smart TV may know far more about your viewing habits than you realize, even if you rarely use its smart features. In a new privacy explainer, Proton warns that many modern TVs quietly collect data about everything displayed on the screen and share it with manufacturers, advertisers, and analytics companies.

The worrying part is that escaping this tracking is becoming increasingly difficult because many privacy controls are buried deep in settings or enabled by default. Proton argues that buying a smart TV today often means accepting a level of surveillance that most people never knowingly signed up for.